How to Migrate from Asana to Vikunja (or Wekan / Kantree)

Why Migrate from Asana?

Asana is a polished US-headquartered project management tool used by millions of teams. The product is genuinely well-designed and the integrations ecosystem is broad.

The trade-offs: it’s a US service processing your team’s work data on US infrastructure subject to the CLOUD Act. Pricing scales aggressively (Premium $10.99/user/month, Business $24.99/user/month). For European teams handling sensitive project information — strategic planning, M&A coordination, customer contract management — Asana’s US jurisdiction matters operationally.

Three credible alternatives:

Vikunja (Germany, open source) — full-featured project management with self-hosting option. The closest thing to “Asana but yours.” Self-hostable on Hetzner for ~€10/month total infrastructure cost regardless of team size. The strongest sovereignty story.

Wekan (open source, community-developed) — kanban-only, simpler than Vikunja or Asana. Better choice if you primarily use Trello-style boards rather than full project management.

Kantree (France, commercial) — all-in-one project management with stronger features than Vikunja. Hosted in France, GDPR-native, commercial pricing closer to Asana.

This guide focuses on Vikunja as the primary recommendation. The migration steps for Wekan and Kantree are similar in concept.

Detailed Migration Steps

Step 1: Choose Your Alternative

Vikunja best fit if:

• Your team uses lists, kanban, gantt, or table views
• Self-hosting capability available (or you’ll use Vikunja Cloud)
• 5-100 active users
• Mid-complexity project management needs

Wekan best fit if:

• Your team primarily uses kanban boards (Trello-style)
• You don’t need lists, gantt, or complex hierarchies
• Self-hosting capability available
• Simpler is better for your team

Kantree best fit if:

• Your team needs Asana-grade polish
• Self-hosting isn’t available or desired
• French/European jurisdiction is preferred
• Budget allows commercial pricing

For most European teams replacing Asana, Vikunja is the right starting evaluation.

Step 2: Provision Vikunja

Two paths:

Option A: Vikunja Cloud (managed)

The simplest path. Sign up at vikunja.io for managed hosting starting at €5/user/month.

Pros: zero operational burden, German jurisdiction, immediate productivity. Cons: per-user pricing scales linearly.

Option B: Self-hosted Vikunja on Hetzner

For technical teams or organizations of 20+ users:

Hetzner CPX11 (2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 80 GB SSD): €4.51/month
Vikunja Docker compose: open source
Caddy reverse proxy + Let's Encrypt SSL: free
PostgreSQL container: free

Total cost: ~€60/year for unlimited users. Operational burden: ~2-4 hours/month maintenance.

For organizations of 50+ users, the cost economics strongly favor self-hosting. For under 20 users, Vikunja Cloud is the pragmatic path.

Step 3: Inventory Your Asana Workspace

Before migrating, document:

• Projects: count, types (list/board/timeline), active vs archived
• Tasks: total count, custom fields used
• Teams: team structure, members per team
• Custom fields: which Asana custom fields are actively used
• Rules / Automations: list active automation rules
• Integrations: Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, calendar sync, etc.
• Forms: any Asana Forms in active use
• Goals / Portfolios: enterprise features that may not have Vikunja equivalents

This document determines migration scope. Pure task-management workspaces migrate easily. Heavy automation + portfolio/goals tracking is harder.

Step 4: Export Asana Data

Asana’s export options:

Option A: CSV per-project

• Open project → Project actions → Export → CSV
• Repeat for each project (tedious for many projects)
• Captures basic task data, custom fields

Option B: JSON via API (recommended)

• Generate Asana personal access token
• Use Asana API to export full workspace data programmatically
• Captures custom fields, comments, attachments, full hierarchies

For 10+ projects, the API approach saves significant time. There are open-source migration scripts for Asana → Vikunja that handle the API-based export and Vikunja import.

Step 5: Import into Vikunja

Vikunja’s import options:

• Vikunja Web — Settings → Import — supports several formats
• Vikunja API — for custom migrations from JSON

For each Asana project:

1. Create equivalent Vikunja Project
2. Import tasks via CSV or API
3. Map Asana custom fields to Vikunja custom fields
4. Verify data integrity

What imports cleanly:

• Tasks with title, description, due date, assignee
• Subtasks and dependencies
• Custom fields (with field type mapping)
• Comments (via API import)
• Labels and tags

What needs manual work:

• Asana-specific features (Forms, Portfolios, Goals)
• Complex automation rules
• Some attachment migration

Step 6: Recreate Teams and Permissions

Asana’s team structure → Vikunja’s namespace structure:

• Asana team → Vikunja namespace (with same members)
• Asana project → Vikunja project (within namespace)
• Asana team permissions → Vikunja team permissions (per namespace)

Vikunja’s permission model is more granular than Asana’s at the project level — multiple roles (Read Only, Read & Write, Admin) per project. Use the migration to clean up over-permissioned access patterns.

Step 7: Replace Asana Automations

Vikunja’s built-in automation is simpler than Asana’s:

• Status changes
• Assignee changes
• Due date triggers
• Notifications

For complex Asana automation rules, two paths:

Path A: Simplify and accept loss

Most Asana automation rules accumulate over time without active use. Migration is the perfect moment to simplify. Document the few automation rules that are actually load-bearing; let the rest die.

Path B: External automation via n8n

n8n is the Berlin-based open-source workflow automation platform. Self-hostable on the same Hetzner server as Vikunja. Connects to Vikunja’s API for complex automation.

Examples:

• “When Asana task in ‘Marketing/2026’ is created, post to Slack channel” → n8n workflow with Vikunja webhook trigger
• “When task is completed by specific user, create follow-up task” → n8n workflow

n8n adds operational complexity but enables automation that exceeds Asana’s built-in capabilities.

Step 8: Migrate Integrations

Common Asana integrations and their Vikunja equivalents:

• Slack notifications: Vikunja webhooks → Slack incoming webhooks
• Email notifications: Vikunja’s built-in email
• GitHub integration: via webhook + Vikunja API
• Google Calendar / Outlook: Vikunja CalDAV integration
• Time tracking (Toggl, Harvest): integrate via API
• CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive): via Zapier or n8n

For each Asana integration in active use, find Vikunja equivalent or accept the gap. Document accepted gaps.

Step 9: Parallel Run

For 1-2 weeks:

• All new projects start in Vikunja
• Active Asana projects continue until natural completion
• Archived Asana projects stay there for reference
• Daily verification that Vikunja workflow handles team needs

Step 10: Cancel Asana

After successful parallel run:

1. Final export from Asana for compliance archive
2. Cancel Asana subscription
3. Update internal documentation
4. Update integration credentials in 1Password / Bitwarden / etc.

Tips for a Smooth Migration

• Asana’s polish exceeds open-source alternatives. Be honest with your team about this. Vikunja is functional but not as visually polished. Some team members may resist.
• Self-hosting economics are strong at scale. A 50-person team paying $10.99/user/month on Asana ($550/month, ~$6,600/year) vs €60/year self-hosted Vikunja saves significant money. The savings fund a part-time DevOps engineer.
• Don’t migrate inactive projects. Use migration as cleanup. Most Asana workspaces accumulate dead projects.
• Vikunja’s gantt view is improving but lags Asana’s. If your team relies on advanced timeline visualization, test before committing.
• For teams that primarily use kanban, Wekan is simpler than Vikunja. Don’t over-engineer the alternative.
• Vikunja Cloud is genuinely good value for small teams. €5/user/month for managed hosting is competitive with Asana Personal Edition.
• Mobile experience varies. Vikunja mobile apps are functional but less polished than Asana’s. If your team is mobile-heavy, evaluate before migration.
• Plan for change management. Project management tools are deeply embedded in team habits. Migration is 30% technical work, 70% change management. Underweight either at your peril.
• For teams using Asana Goals or Portfolios extensively, accept that Vikunja doesn’t have direct equivalents. Either build the equivalent in n8n + spreadsheets, or accept the gap, or evaluate Kantree which has more enterprise features.